What will drive the ad tech conversation in 2018?

As President and Chief Executive Officer of Visto, Kerry Bianchi is responsible for driving strategic direction and business execution across the entire organization. Here’s what she has to say….

Transparency

Transparency will continue to the top issue throughout the advertising industry, with much conversation revolving around potential solutions. These include developments created by stakeholders in the industry (e.g., Ads.txt) as well as those by the tech industry (e.g., blockchain).

Artificial Intelligence

While AI is a hot topic of conversation, it’s more an overused buzzword than a revolutionary change to the ecosystem. In 2018, I expect the conversation will mature, moving past hyperbole toward understanding. We’ll begin to see more understanding that today we’re really dealing with machine learning, not true AI. Once that foundation is set, I expect there will be an acceleration of progress.

Brand safety / Ad Fraud

Concerns about brand safety and ad fraud will remain high in 2018. In turn, this will drive higher demand for tools, technologies and partners that can provide the insight, control, transparency and analytics needed to protect media investments from bad actors or questionable content.

I do hope that we’ll see wider adoption of Ads.txt and other measures that lend transparency to the supply chain, because these measures can only live up to their promise if they are widely used.

Blockchain

I expect to see more buzz about Blockchain as a potential solution to the ad industry’s transparency problem, however it’s still at its very early stages. I suspect 2018 will be a year with a lot of talk and little action, as the industry has yet to fully understand what applications are be appropriate for digital advertising.